Last week started out with a bang, when the Vatican Synod reminded everyone that the Jews aren't entitled to Israel.

"The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” Monsignor Cyril Salim Bustros, Greek Melkite archbishop of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Boston, Massachusetts, and president of the “Commission for the Message,” said at Saturday’s Vatican press conference."

Many commenters squirmed a bit when hearing this, saying that the denial of Israel's right to the Land of Israel were coming from "extremists" and not the mainstream Catholic church. Unfortunately, the Vatican is where the press conference took place, and no one at the Vatican seemed to have had a problem with the above statement.

And then...on Friday, in honor of Shabbat Chayyei Sarah, when we recall Avraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpela and surrounding fields in Hebron, UNESCO had their turn:

The Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem: the Board voted 44 to one (12 abstentions) to reaffirm that the two sites are an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law, the UNESCO Conventions and the United Nations and Security Council resolutions.

The Elder of Zion blogger explains why the Palestinians are lying and why it is a travesty that UNESCO's goals are now to rewrite history in the service of those who want to eradicate Jewish culture from the Middle East.

Lying isn't new...and slamming Israel is part and parcel of what passes as news these days.

Arabs and leftist activists staged an attack on Palestinian fields in a bid to accuse settlers of vandalism, an organization that claims to have documented the incident says.

[The claims] were made Saturday by Tazpit Unit members, an organization identified with the settlers which documents news events in the territories. Tazpit says that these staged attacks were meant to falsely accuse settlers of attacking Palestinian land.

The photos, taken by members of the Tazpit Unit, were shot on Palestinian land Friday, near the Neveh Tzuf settlement. The images allegedly show Palestinians and left-wing activists cutting down Palestinian olive trees using an electric saw.

Many so-called "Price Tag' acts targeting Palestinians were recorded in the last few weeks, and the settlers now claim they were staged by the Palestinians themselves and intended to harm the settlers' image.

Tazpit photographer Ehud Amiton, who documented the vandalism act on Friday, says that this is exactly what can be seen in his images.

The story began in the twelfth grade class this week, when a student suddenly jumped up excitedly and announced that her friend got engaged.

Her teacher realized that she had received the happy information via a text message sent to her cell phone, and immediately called for the school principal.

The principal demanded that the girl hand over the phone.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis have forbidden the use of "non-kosher" cell phones, which allow SMS text messaging. Since the prohibition is considered very serious, the student was expelled from school.

Yet the principal didn't stop there. He went through the phone's directory to see what other girls in the class had "non-kosher" cellphones. Apparently, Kosher cellphones have a similar prefix, so it was easy to spot the "non-kosher" ones.

The principal's detective work resulted in 8 other girls from the class being called in to be reprimanded for using non-kosher phones, and then they were all expelled as well.

"Many girls at the seminar are stressed out because they have a phone that is not kosher and fear being caught," said one student.

"There are those who are now trying to get a kosher phone, so they can show that to the principal, if caught. Since we're dealing with 12th grade, no one wants to get thrown out of school 6 months before they starts going out on shidduch dates", another student said.

It should be emphasized that this is not the only institution that treats the subject seriously.

In some Ultra Orthodox institutions, even the parents aren't allowed to own non-kosher cellphones.

Hat-tip to Faith for the above poster...

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

As the budget passes to include more funding for those who study in Yeshiva, the following article on ynet was interesting. Obviously he doesn't represent the entire Chareidi society, but his points about Chareidi politicians are right on the money (I've written about it before).'We yeshiva students barely study'

Yehoshua (not his real name - "if someone identifies me, I'm finished") arrived at our meeting with his hat leaning sideways on his face and his coat folded in a bag. He is tall, slim and wears glasses. Lights side curls hide behind his ears and his cheeks are adorned with a stylish beard. He's fluent and often uses Yiddish slang as he speaks. He spends eight hours a day at the kollel before returning home to his wife and children at the haredi community they live in.

"Don’t give the haredi politicians what they want; don't bring back the assured income," he pleads, and this is the essence of the rare interview you are about to read. But first, Yehoshua would like to stress that his intention is not to present the haredi society as lazy or deceptive. On the contrary, he says, I have a lot of constructive criticism. Politicians, he adds, are those preventing him from contributing to the society. "We are as uncomfortable with the mutual hatred among the people," he explains. "People, we are brothers."

"When the seculars established the State they made every young person go to the army. The haredim refused for two reasons: They didn't want to get killed because of the army and they refused to be subject to a secular society. So the agreement was that everyone would withdraw from society in order to maintain our religiousness and study Torah from morning to evening while the wife provides for the family," he begins his fascinating monologue.

"What happened was that the seculars have been funding the haredim ever since. We must remember that at the time the haredi public was very small and the secular public could still carry them on its back. In Europe there were always 'landlords' who would work and fund the minority who studied and were really prodigies. Today it's different – everyone must study and spend the whole day at the kollel.

The first instance of the "superbug" has been detected in Israel, Channel 10 reported on Tuesday.

The patient, who recently returned from India, was diagnosed as having the bug that is resistant to all known antibiotics, doctors said.

The woman, who reportedly brought the bug back to Israel with her, was placed in quarantine at Sheba Hostpital at Tel Hashomer when doctors confirmed that she had the "New Deli" bug, Channel 10 reported.

Israel ranks among the most corrupt countries in the Western world, according to a study released by the International Transparency Organization on Tuesday.Out of 178 countries - 1 being least corrupt - Israel was listed at number 30. But when compared to other member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Israel fared much worse.

The least corrupt countries were listed as Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore.

Israel received a score of 6.1 out of 10 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector.

That score positions Israel in the 22nd place out of 33 members of the OECD.

Bet you didn't know that a swollen left middle finger is a tell-tale symptom of a 'hot' appendix in need of immediate surgical removal. I also bet you didn't know that if the end of that swollen middle digit is tingling, it means the appendix is about to rupture.

None of this is remotely true, by the way, and has no basis whatsoever in medical fact. It is simply the latest load of crap that my subconscious mind decided to try to sell me in my sleep last night.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Today's JPost reports that a Vatican conference of Bishops this past Shabbat, they demanded that Israel accept UN resolutions calling for an end to its “occupation” of "Arab lands."

"The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” Monsignor Cyril Salim Bustros, Greek Melkite archbishop of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Boston, Massachusetts, and president of the “Commission for the Message,” said at Saturday’s Vatican press conference.

“We Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land’ as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.

“Even if the head of the Israeli state is Jewish, the future is based on democracy."

So...the Jewish people aren't chosen, we don't have a "promised land"...and Israel cannot be a Jewish State, rather a "democratic one" (hint, read "State of all its Citizens").

In their “Appeal to the International Community” the bishops expressed “hopes that the two-state solution becomes a reality and not only a dream.”

And the "2 state solution" is a Palestinian State (which will not allow Jews in, as clearly stated by PA President Abbas), and a "democratic State of all its Citizens" [which means not really Jewish"]

The only things these bishops will get from Santa this year will be a lump of coal...

...and more disappointment, as the Jewish people return to their homeland, fulfilling millennium-old Biblical prophesies, as we witness the in-gathering of the exiles and the blooming of the desert.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

In a highly under-reported win, Israel's Police Counter-Terror force, the "YaMaM" won the international "Urban Shield" counter-terror competition against 27 top rated police and federal SWAT teams from around the world. Not only did Israel place first, but their point score was the highest ever in the history of the competition.

Excellence against terrorism: SWAT fighters won first prize this week at a competition of the special counter-terrorism units from various countries, held in California, United States. The "Urban Shield" contest was a two-day exercise, and Israel's team also broke the world record [in scoring points]. Israel's unit competed against 27 police units from the United States and abroad, reacting to different scenarios in the war on terrorism, taking control of terrorists holding hostages and more. The SWAT team, consisting of eight fighters under the command of a Commander "B" gained the highest score among the units that participated in the competition, and won first place.

Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch also spoke with the commander of the delegation.

"You brought great pride to Israel, have proven that you are step forward before the whole world", said Aharonovitch as he praised the fighters. "You are fighting in the shadows away from the spotlight, and you probided the world with a taste of your abilities, and your readiness to answer the call. You have placed the Israel Police at the top of the world."

OAKLAND -- An Oakland police SWAT team finished second in a prestigious, internationally known training competition last weekend, losing out to a group of Israeli police but beating more than two dozen other Bay Area law enforcement agencies that participated.

Israel's counter terror units are the best in the world...and I'm proud to serve in our local region's unit as well.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

While "Peace Now" and AP fret over the following, its obviously good news for Israel.

Israeli settlers have begun building new homes at an extraordinary pace since the government lifted its moratorium on West Bank housing starts – almost 550 in three weeks, more than four times faster than the last two years.

In an extensive report Thursday morning, the Associated Press wrote that many of the homes are going up in areas that under practically any peace scenario would become part of a Palestinian state, a trend that could doom US-brokered peace talks.According to the AP's count, ground has been broken on 544 new West Bank homes since Sept. 26, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lifted a 10-month freeze on new settlement building.

The survey, while not comprehensive, marks the most extensive effort yet to quantify the construction. It was based on visits to 16 of the West Bank's more than 120 settlements as well as phone calls to more than four dozen settlements and interviews with construction workers and mayors.

"This figure is alarming and is another indicator that Israel is not serious about the peace process, which is supposed to be about ending the occupation," said Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' self-rule government in the West Bank.

Netanyahu has played down the new construction, saying it "has no real effect on the map of a possible (peace) agreement." (ynetnews)

May we continue to build in ALL parts of Israel.

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Without a doubt this was the most difficult election I ever voted for.

Normally I vote for a candidate based on their positions and record (with Israel and Economics being the most important to me).

I normally wouldn’t even consider their party affiliation.

But I couldn’t do that this election.

It far too important for the future of America and Israel that the Obama fail in everything he does, and that means the Democrats must lose control over the Senate and Congress.

Based on current polls of the upcoming election, the majority of America understands that too.

I’ve never voted a protest vote before. I’ve always voted for the candidates I like, even if they have no chance of getting in.

As usual, I carefully reviewed each candidate’s positions.

The first Republican challenger I liked a lot, but the Democratic incumbent has a very solid record of supporting Israel (not that I agree with his interpretation on what support actually means, but I believe he sincerely views himself as pro-Israel). But ultimately this Democratic incumbent only offered an understated reaction to Obama’s awful treatment of Israel and he took his sweet time before he offered it.

If he had stood up earlier and said more, my decision would have been much more difficult (or perhaps even different), but as they say, “too little, too late”.

I wasn’t impressed with the second Republican candidate at all. In fact, I disliked his positions on numerous, though not primary, issues. But lucky for him, I was even less impressed with most of the positions of the Democratic incumbent. So this Republican candidate grudgingly got my vote too.

The third Democratic incumbent was OK on Israel, but his economics were horrible, I mean really horrible.

His Republican competitor is a bit of an unknown, but he’s weighed in on all the major issues, and I like many of his positions. That was an easy decision.

From the three candidates I voted for, I would have voted for two of them anyway.

The third selection was my way of voting against the Obama and for America.

I hope my vote will help.

God bless America.

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Monday, October 18, 2010

After a pathetic collusion of impropriety, Defense Minister EhudBarak's wife, NiliPriel admitted that she illegally hired a foreign worker (named Virginia), and expressed her willingness to pay a fine, in a bid to put an end to the affair. (YNET)

Unfortunately, it took the efforts of right-wing, law-abiding citizens to bring about Priel's admission of guilt, since the State of Israel wasn't able to do anything useful.

The "Legal Forum for the land of Israel" initially filed the complaint with Israel's attorney general, against Barak 8 months ago. Instead of the police investigating the case, it was turned over to the ministry of labor, headed by Barak's good friend and Labor-party minister, Fuad Ben Eliezer. Surprisingly [not], they came up with nothing.

Even more surprisingly, the Shin Bet claimed they couldn't find the foreign worker. Barak and his wife said they had no clue how to contact Virginia.

So...what does Israel's State Attorney do?

The case against Priel was closed last week, when Attorney General YehudaWeinstein said the foreign worker in question, identified as Virginia, could not be located.

As a result, last Thursday I personally heard a representative from the "Legal Forum for the land of Israel" on IDF Radio last week ask for the public's help in locating, "Virginia," since Israel's police and security services were unsuccessful.

Of course, "Virginia" was located the other day, and she asked what the big deal was, since she said that NiliPriel and EhudBarak had her phone number!

Now that the Smoking Gun was located, NiliPriel decided to announce her guilt and she expressed "her willingness to pay a fine".

What a saint she is.

Priel and Barak should have to pay far more than a fine, and they should be indicted for obstruction of justice and interference in an investigation.

Along with the Barak mafia, the other characters who should go to jail are Fuad Ben Eliezer, the Shin Bet, and Attorney General YehudaWeinstein.

Don't hold your breathe.

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Sunday, October 17, 2010

1. From INN and NRG: A three-justice IDF military court found Wisam Ali Mahmad Raadi innocent of manslaughter charges in the infamous lynch-murder of two IDF soldiers 10 years ago.

Judge Menachem Lieberman, who headed the three-member panel, accepted Raadi's explanation that he had beaten the body of one of the victims only after he was already dead. So reports the Jerusalem weekly Kol HaZman.

The soldiers were beaten, stabbed, had their eyes gouged out, and were disemboweled. One of the soldier's bodies was set on fire; one was thrown out the window and stamped and beaten by the fired-up mob. The crazed Arab citizens then dragged the two mutilated corpses to the city center and held a victory celebration.

Close to 20 Arabs have been arrested and convicted for their role in the lynching a decade ago. Raadi, however, who was represented in court by radical left-wing Israeli lawyer Leah Zemel, got off easy. A policeman in Ramallah at the time who was arrested several years ago, he was found guilty only of "harming regional security."

"It is clear that the accused did not have intention to cause death," Judge Lieberman wrote in his ruling, "but on the other hand, it is also clear that he meant to beat and strike the soldier. This was therefore a purposeful act of striking the body in order to get out his frustration and anger. But I was not persuaded that he intended to harm a living person."

2. Rigged? Once in 10,000 years event: Combination of six numbers repeats itself twice, less than a month apart; 95 gamblers bet on unlikely event and win.

Statisticians said the probability was abysmal, conspiracy theorists said the game was rigged, but some lucky gamblers believed this could happen: In an odds-defying incident, Saturday night's state lottery numbers were an almost identical repeat of the lottery numbers from September 21. Ninety-five people picked the lucky combination and won.

The numbers that rolled out during a live studio broadcast this past Saturday, in lottery number 2194 of Miphal HaPayis, Israel's state lottery, were 36, 33, 32, 26, 14, 13, and an additional 'strong' number 2. Moments after the celebration in the studio, curious web surfers were amazed to notice that these same numbers happened to roll out less than a month ago; on September 21, in lottery number 2187, the winning numbers were 13, 14, 26, 32, 33, 36, and a 'strong' number of 1. The order in which the numbers were picked was reversed. (ynetnews)

3. Definitely Rigged.

Fifteen years after Yigal Amir shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, prominent religious figures have begun an ill-timed campaign to retroactively acquit Amir's girlfriend, who was charged with failing to report his intent to commit murder.

In a letter to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, several rabbis and members of the Knesset quoted former Shin Bet officials Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon who expressed their belief that Har-Shefi, was not, in fact, aware of Amir's intention to kill Rabin.

Among those who signed the letter are Knesset Members Otniel Schneller of Kadima and Uri Ariel of the National Union, as well as Rabbis Yuval Sherlo and Yaakov Meidan.

"I am shocked by the idea," responded the slain prime minister's daughter, Dalia Rabin, who added that her reaction was not personal and she trusted the legal authorities to make the right decision.

4. Absolut Rigging. The foreign worker at the center of a recently dropped investigation against Defense Minister Ehud Barak was located over the weekend and gave an interview to Israel Radio that aired Sunday morning. The worker said in the interview that Barak's body guards and his wife had her phone number.

The investigation into Barak's hiring of an illegal foreign worker was closed after investigators from the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, as well as from the Shin Bet, were unable to locate the Filipino woman. It was alleged that the woman illegally worked as a cleaner in the Barak family's Tel Aviv home.

The investigation was called off when investigators could not turn up enough evidence to file an indictment.

In the Israel Radio interview, the worker said that she would typically enter the defense minister's home without undergoing any security checks. Speaking on Barak, the woman called him a "good man," and said that he treated her decently. The Filipino woman expressed similar sentiments about Barak's wife, Nili, saying, "Nili gave me presents."

According to the woman, she used several different names while in Israel. Additionally, she said that Barak's security guards as well as his wife had her phone number, implying that a regular relationship had developed with the employee.

It was discovered in the investigation that the woman began working at the Barak home without a proper visa in December of last year and remained in the family's employment for the following months, cleaning their home twice a week. (JPost)

Hopefully, tomorrow will bring better news...or at least indictments and convictions for those who deserve them...but I won't hold my breathe.

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Everyone knows that Israel is a world leader in unmanned aircraft. The following even took an IAF pilot I know by surprise....(the video below shows how amazing this aircraft really is).

The Panther’s VTOL capabilities give it the ability to takeoff and land on an unprepared area, while an automatic flight control system controls the transitions between the hovering takeoff phase to forward flight and vice versa before landing. IAI says this system eliminates the need for an external pilot and allows the craft to take off and land automatically with the click of a button on the operator console.

Itzhak Nissan, President and CEO of IAI, said: "The Panther's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, along with its effective use of changing flight dynamics, make it a unique and invaluable asset on the tactical battlefield for the Israel Defense Forces and for foreign customers. We consider the innovative technology used in this system to be ground-breaking."

The Panther, which weighs roughly 65 kg (143 lb), is powered by three ultra-quiet electrical motors that allow the craft to loiter for approximately six hours, at an altitude of up to 10,000 feet, with an operational radius of over 60 km (37 miles). The UAV carries IAI’s Mini-POP (Plug-in Optronic Payload), which consists of a day/night stabilized camera with a laser range finder, pointer or laser designator. Meanwhile, the smaller Mini Panther, which weighs up to 12 kg (26 lb), can loiter for approximately two hours and carries IAI’s Micro-POP.

The Panther control station can store up to three aircraft and can be transported on a midsize vehicle. It also includes the ground data link, the support equipment and spare parts, with two fully redundant identical consoles that are used to control the UAV’s mission. The portable Mini Panther system includes two aircraft and a command and control unit and is small enough to be carried in the backpacks of two soldiers. (GizMag)

(RTTNews) - More than 18 Revolutionary guards were killed and 14 others wounded in an explosion Tuesday at a base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRG) Corps in the Western Iranian province of Lurestan, reported Iran's official news agency IRNA Wednesday.

A Deputy Commander of the Corps said that blast resulted from a fire that spread to a munitions depot at the corps's base in Khoramabad, 300 miles southwest of the capital, Tehran, and close to Iran's restive Kurdistan region.

Police and fire-and-rescue teams were rushed to the IRG base and the injured were taken to a hospital in Khoramabad, the agency said.

The base houses underground launching and storage facilities for Iran's medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, said research group Global Security.

Lorestan Governor General Hassan Shariatnejad visited the injured persons hospitalized and offered his condolences over the tragic incident. Local officials declared a two-day mourning Wednesday and a funeral was scheduled for Thursday.

Kudos to the pyromaniac responsible for the fire.Update: 1:06 PM Two rockets were fired from Gaza at Ashkelon, resulting in air raid sirens. No reports of injuries, and the rockets apparently landed in open areas causing no damage.

The poll results were very interesting. 205 people answered the poll, and I belatedly found out that on SurveyMonkey the free account only allows you to views the data on the first 100. Regardless the first 100 answers were certainly enough to get a feel for what people knew.

Some answers were obvious and most people knew them or figured them out. Other questions were tricky or at least non-intuitive if you didn’t already know the answer.

Below are the correct answers and the explanation for each one.

1. Who coined the term describing Israel as a "Jewish and Democratic State"?

Many people believe that this term is as old as the state, but that is not the case.

This phrase was coined and first used by (a) Peace Now in after 1967 to explain why Israel must divest itself of significant and important historical sections of the Jewish homeland.

Peace Now forwarded the argument that if Israel is to remain a Jewish and democratic state, Israel must rid ourselves of the Arabs that threaten Jewish majority control of the state of Israel. Quite interesting, at the time, Peace Now espoused the same exact goal as Rabbi Meir Kahane, just through a different method.

2. Was Israel founded as:

(a) A Jewish and Democratic state (b) A state of all it’s citizens(c) A Jewish state (d) The 51st state

The majority knew that Israel was founded exclusively as (c) a Jewish state, as explicitly declared in the Declaration of Independence and not a Jewish and Democratic state (they probably read our earlier posts and comments on that).

In the Declaration if Independence, Israeli is defined as a Jewish state that also offered equal political rights and personal freedoms for its non-Jewish residents. While clearly offers special interests and policies to Jewish nationals first.

Israel certainly wasn’t founded as a state of all its citizens as the term is used today.

In 1948 there were only 48 states in the union, so Israel would have been the 49th.

3. Where is Israel legally defined as a "Jewish and Democratic state"?

Rights protected by Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty• Section 1: The purpose of this Basic Law is to protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law tile values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Former Chief Justice considers the Basic Laws as a precursor to an Israeli constitution and gives them similar powers, even though, those that voted in the Basic Laws did not understand them as such at the time.

More than half the people thought the answer was (d) None of the above.

4. Who is against defining Israel a Jewish and Democratic state?

(a) PA President Mouhamad Abbas (b) Peace Now(c) New Israel Fund (d) Israel’s Labor Party (e) All of the above

Nearly everyone correctly identified the right answer as (e) All of the above.

To one degree or another, all of the above want to change Israel’s Jewish character and definition and make Israel a state of all its citizens and not a Jewish state (see next question).

5. Is Israel, as a state of all its citizens:

(a) a Jewish state (b) a non-Jewish state(c) a future Islamic state (d) The end of the Jewish state

The only (possibly) wrong answer is (a) a Jewish state.

By removing the Jewish from the Jewish state and defining it as a state of everyone, by definition you no longer have a Jewish state. (“If everyone is special, then no one is special” – Dash)

You might have a state that temporarily retains a Jewish majority, but that is not sustainable if the state can’t unequivocally work to maintain the Jewish majority, in part through a selective immigration policy that favors Jewish nationals.

All the other answers are what would inevitably happen if Israel were no longer defined and run by the principles of it being a Jewish state.

Surprisingly, more than half the respondents believe that even if Israel were defined as a state of all its citizens, it would somehow inexplicably remain a Jewish state regardless – even though that would remove any vestige of Jewish national centrality from the government’s policies, laws, immigration policies and character.

I first thought they didn't understand what the term and consequences meant and assumed that because Jews would temporarily still be the majority and temporarily shape the character of the country, those that answered (a) simply weren’t thinking of what would be a few years into the future.

But I realized their answer must be far more subtle than that.

Presumably they meant that the Land of Israel, by definition, will always be the Jewish state, no matter if the Jews are in exile, the minority, or if the country is democratically overthrown and turned into a “state of all its citizens”.

Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People exclusively, and so even if no one calls Israel the Jewish state, and even if the Jews become a minority (or non-existent), and Jerusalem is ripped away from the control of the people of Israel and given to the Palestinians or to an International body to govern, the land of Israel can never lose its basic definition as the Jewish state.

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Rejected: Acceptance of Israel as the National Homeland of the Jewish People in exchange for settlement freeze.

Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday stated that the Palestinian Authority unreservedly rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's offer of a renewed building freeze in the West Bank in exchange for PA recognition of Israel as the Jewish national home.

"We forcefully reject all these Israeli games," said Erekat. "The racist demands of Netanyahu cannot be tied to the request to cease building in the settlements for the purpose of establishing a state." (JPost)

End of Violence - Rejected. ("Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere.")To date, Fatah and Palestinian Policemen have continued to be involved in terror attacks against Israelies. See here, here, here, here, yawn.

End of Incitement - Rejected. ("All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel.")

Visit MEMRI and Palwatch and see Palestinian Authority incitement broadcasts on a daily basis.

Of course, while the PA continues to reject, they still get everything they ask for. They will still get another settlement freeze from Israel, and the PA will have to do nothing to get it.

For a sobering analysis of why there won't be peace with Palestinians for decades, read today's interview with Minister of strategic affairs, Moshe Yaalon in the JPost.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon on Tuesday voiced pessimism regarding peace talks with the Palestinians. "There is no chance in the coming years for a peace agreement with the Palestinians," he told Army Radio.

Ya'alon said, "In the eyes of the Palestinians, the occupation started in '48 and not in '67. It is not only Hamas that thinks this way, but also [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas]. They need to be released from this delusion, from not recognizing Israel as the home of the Jewish people, and from from their readiness to agree that an agreement will be the end of all mutual claims, he said in the interview.

He concluded, "They have no interest in having Israel as a neighboring state."

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Former Assistant US Secretary of Defense Lawrence J. Korb sent a letter to President Obama two weeks ago stating that the sentence meted out to convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was too harsh and not justified by the crimes he committed, Army Radio reported on Tuesday.

According to Korb, his boss, former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, expended immense effort to convince the judge in the Pollard case to judge him harshly.

"Despite Pollard's admission of guilt, cooperation with authorities, asked for a plea bargain, he received a disproportional punishment," wrote Korb.

Korb pointed out in his letter that the average punishment for the crime conviction Pollard received was two to four years at the time of his conviction. And today, after several legal changes, the new average is about 10 years.

Pollard and the US agreed to a plea bargain, yet Pollard is imprisoned to this very day.

Enough is enough -- its time for the US to release Pollard and let him go home to Israel.

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